Multilumen venus catheters are well known. Some such as that disclosed in the Mueller Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,701 consist of a single tube equipped with a mixing hub at the proximate end. Other multilumen venus catheters such as disclosed in the Bennett U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,881 dated Jun. 13, 1989 consist of plural tubes each having a circular cross-section, with the tubes welded together over the entire length thereof. Still others such as disclosed in the Gross U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,648 dated May 4, 1993 and the Mahurkar U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,159 dated Jan. 23, 1996 provide plural radially rigid, circular cross-section, concentric lumens or plural lumens surrounding a central reinforcing strip. Such catheters are useful only for fluids.
Surgical access catheters are also well known and are used to facilitate the introduction of surgical instruments into the body for the performance of various procedures at the distal end and protect the surrounding tissue for the trauma of multiple passages of such instruments.
Surgical catheters such as disclosed in the Melker U.S. Pat. No. 5,250,038 dated Oct. 5, 1993, provide a main and secondary lumen of significantly differing cross-section, with the main lumen being of circular cross-section for the passage of a instrument therethrough with the secondary lumen useful for fluids.
Another more versatile multilumen catheter is disclosed in the Spaeth U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,741 dated May 11, 1993 and includes an axially stiff tubular introducer with a relatively rigid funnel on the proximate end to facilitate the introduction of the introducer. Once in place proximate to the target tissue, the circular cross-section dilator may be removed from the introducer and one or more instruments introduced through the introducer, typically in the form of a circular cross-section catheter with plural lumens.
The tubular introducer is provided with axial reinforcing members sufficient to impart axial stiffness, but is radially deformable so that the flexible walls collapse around the catheter or other inserted instruments to the minimum cross-sectional configuration required by the inserted catheter or other instruments. In other embodiments, the radially deformable tubular introducer may be preformed into a non-circular cross-section to conform to a particular instrument.
While surgical catheters of this type represent a significant improvement over previously known surgical catheters, they still fail to meet the needs of physicians desiring 360.degree. access to the tissue into which the catheter is inserted, the ability to simultaneously introduce and use plural instruments without mutual interference, to simultaneously introduce and withdraw fluids, to simultaneously use instruments and perform a fluid flush or aspiration of a vessel into which the catheter is inserted, and to avoid changes in catheter cross-section as various instruments are inserted and withdrawn.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to obviate many of the deficiencies of known surgical catheters and to provide a novel surgical catheter and method.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel surgical catheter and method in which a constant diameter central lumen may be used to provide an axial view of the cavity in which the catheter is inserted.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel surgical catheter and method in which plural individually isolated lumens may be selectively rotated about a central lumen to thereby provide 360.degree. access to the adjacent tissue for the instruments in each of the peripheral lumens.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a novel surgical catheter and method in which the exterior wall may be made thinner because of the reinforcement provided by the central lumen of the catheter.
It is yet still another object of the present invention to provide a novel surgical catheter and method in which the central lumen, desirably axially centered within the catheter for axial viewing, may be offset to provide selective viewing of the side walls of a vessel.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel surgical catheter and method in which space is provided between the central lumen and the peripheral lumens for use in extracting fluids and tissue from within the catheter.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a novel surgical catheter and method which may be flexed without kinking, which has sufficient axial stiffness to facilitate insertion, and which is not laterally deformable by the pressure of the tissue into which inserted.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a novel surgical catheter and method which will retain its size and shape as well as the relative orientation of the lumens from the proximate end to the distal end, reducing trauma to the surrounding tissue from multiple passages of instruments and the like therethrough.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a novel surgical catheter and method in which the size, shape and relative location of the various lumens may be selectively varied to accommodate the optics and instruments of a specific surgical procedure, and through which either optics or instruments may be selectively inserted.
It is yet still a further object of the present invention to provide a novel surgical catheter and method for the introduction of a second multilumen catheter through a main vessel in which the second catheter is inserted into and out of a port lumen of the first catheter into a branch vessel to perform surgical procedures therein.
These and many other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims, the appended drawings, and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.